Wall Street was almost certain to open lower, given the shudders being sent through global markets by Greece's financial woes, but disappointing US jobs numbers have certainly not helped things.

Following on from falls in London and an overnight decline in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down around 50 points in early trading. Meanwhile the FTSE 100 is currently 67.03 points lower at 5695.03 and is on course for its biggest one day points decline since February.

Worries that Greece might not be able to solve its debt crisis - and worse, that the problem could spread to other European countries - have been intensifying during the day, although ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said this afternoon that a Greek default was not an issue. The euro is still under pressure but trimmed losses after these comments.

On top of this came news from the US that new claims for unemployment benefit rose 18,000 to 460,000 last week. Analysts had been expecting a slight fall to 435,000.

Elsewhere the yen has strengthened on suggestions that China might announce a revaluation of the yuan, a change in its current policy. At the same time US Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner was meeting Chinese vice premier Wang Qishan in Beijing to discuss the global economy.